Illinois lawmakers are among best paid

Illinois' lawmakers last received a pay hike in 2008, when their base salaries were increased to $67,836 a year.

They haven't seen a pay increase since and have given up a portion of their salaries the last couple of years in unpaid furlough days that cost them about $3,100 each.

Doug Finke

FIRST of two parts

Illinois' lawmakers last received a pay hike in 2008, when their base salaries were increased to $67,836 a year.

They haven't seen a pay increase since and have given up a portion of their salaries the last couple of years in unpaid furlough days that cost them about $3,100 each.

There's no need to pass the hat for them yet. Illinois lawmakers remain the fifth best-paid legislators in the country on base salary alone.

However, compensation for being an Illinois senator or representative doesn't end with base salary. About 71 percent of the 177 lawmakers make additional money, called stipends, for holding leadership posts or serving in key committee positions. Those annual stipends range from $10,327 to $27,477.

Lawmakers also are paid daily expense money when they are in Springfield for session days. The per diems can add thousands more to a lawmaker's income.

Add to that health insurance benefits and a retirement plan, and the job of Illinois legislator has the trappings of full-time employment.

Ask legislators and they'll say that's exactly what the job is, even though it is officially considered a part-time position. Lawmakers are allowed to make income outside of the General Assembly.

54 days in session

The General Assembly typically holds session days from January through May and then for a six-day veto session in October or November. The schedule can vary from year to year.

The House is scheduled to be in session 54 days this year. In 2011, it was 73 days; in 2010, it was 55 days. Lawmakers contend that the days they meet in Springfield are only a fraction of the time spent on the job.

"I think most lawmakers work a whole lot more than part time," said Rep. Barbara Flynn Currie of Chicago, majority leader for House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago. "Most lawmakers are really full-time at the job dealing with constituent issues, dealing with hearings during the summer months, working on issues behind the scenes with advocacy groups."

Full-time work

In 2009, the National Conference of State Legislatures divided the various state legislatures among those that are considered full time or part time.

Full-time legislatures required lawmakers to spend the most time doing the job, had large staffs and paid enough for someone to serve without holding an outside job. NCSL considered California, New York, Pennsylvania and Michigan to be solidly full time. All four of those states pay a higher base salary for lawmakers than Illinois.

NCSL ranked Illinois just below those four states, although it still considered Illinois to be a full-time legislature. Florida, Ohio, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Wisconsin shared that ranking. Of those states, only Florida didn't make the list of top 10 base salaries paid to lawmakers.

"In a state like Illinois or Pennsylvania or Massachusetts or California, it's essentially a full-time job even though members can earn income on a part-time basis outside," said Alan Rosenthal of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University. "I think most members really work at it."

Review board

At one time, Illinois lawmakers didn't collect any salary. Lawmakers first got a salary in 1897, when they were paid $1,000 for a two-year session. In 1909, that was doubled to $1,000 a year.

Research compiled by the state's Legislative Research Unit shows only sporadic increases in lawmaker pay until 1985.

From 1991 on, raises were common because of a recommendation by the Compensation Review Board that lawmakers get annual cost-of-living adjustments.

Created by the legislature in 1984, the Compensation Review Board set salaries for lawmakers, judges, the six officials elected statewide, state agency directors and their top assistants. About 1,200 people were covered by its recommendations. The pay raises took effect unless the House and Senate both voted to reject them.

In Illinois, the board made a recommendation every two years about compensation for those officials. The problem was the recommendation came out in the spring of an election year. Fearing voter backlash, lawmakers often rejected the pay board's recommendations.

In 1990, the board recommended that automatic annual cost-of-living increases be awarded to the people covered by its reports to compensate for inflation during the two-year gap between reports. Lawmakers accepted that recommendation while rejecting other salary increase recommendations made by the board that year.

That led to steadier increases in lawmaker pay. Before the first COLA in 1991, lawmakers made a base salary of $35,661. They now make $67,836.

The legislature accepted the COLAs until 2002 when, in response to another budget crisis, it voted to reject them.

In a post-election veto session in 2006, the Senate didn't muster enough votes to turn down the pay board's recommendation that they reinstate COLAs they'd previously rejected. The House previously turned down the recommendation. Even though 103 lawmakers voted against the increase, base salaries went from $57,619 to $65,353.

The Compensation Review Board made its final recommendation in 2008. It was rejected. The board was abolished in 2009.

Pay affects makeup

Part of it lives on, though. Lawmakers still are entitled to automatic COLAs. However, they have not put money into the budget to pay them starting in 2009. Thus, their base salaries and stipends have remained at the same level since then.

Illinois history shows the risks involved when lawmakers raise their own salaries. It was a post-election, lame-duck pay raise lawmakers gave themselves in 1978 that sparked the 1980 cutback amendment that reduced the size of the Illinois House by one-third and helped launch now-Gov. Pat Quinn into prominence.

Before the cutback, there were 236 Illinois legislators, 59 in the Senate and 177 in the House. Now there are 117 House members and still 59 senators.

Leadership posts

Additional money for lawmakers in leadership posts didn't start in Illinois until 1967. At the time, nine leaders got additional compensation, the most going to the top posts in each chamber - House Speaker and House Minority Leader, Senate President and Senate Minority Leader.

The number of paid leadership posts gradually has increased. There are now 21 paid leadership posts in the House and 15 in the Senate.

Both Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago, believe the increasing complexity of the legislative process justifies having more leadership positions.

"As the legislative process has become more complex, those in leadership have a greater responsibility to shape public policy and educate the rank-and-file on a wide range of policies and implications," said Cullerton spokeswoman Rikeesha Phelon.

Madigan spokesman Steve Brown said, "If anything, the complexity of some of the issues that come up probably has grown. You hopefully have people who have cultivated an interest and knowledge in those areas."

Committee stipends

Stipends paid to committee leaders didn't begin in Illinois until 1989. Now, the chairman of a standing House or Senate committee receives $10,327, as does the highest-ranking member of the minority party on a committee, called the committee spokesman.

Madigan has long had a policy that a Democrat beginning his or her third term (fifth year in office) is entitled to chair a committee and receive the committee stipend. He's argued that keeps legislators more engaged in the process.

"They are the more experienced people who have a better feel for the operation of government and have a better feel for areas of the state where the state can improve services and programs," Brown noted.

Rosenthal argues that if it takes a committee chairmanship to keep a legislator engaged, "then everybody should be a committee chair."

Per diems

Daily expense money is paid to legislators when they are in session. The rate has changed over the years, but now stands at $111 a day, down from $139 in 2010.

Comptroller's records show that in the 2011 calendar year, 135 lawmakers were paid more than $7,000 in per diems. Of those, 78 were paid more than $8,000. Nearly $1.4 million was paid in per diems during 2011.

The Senate that year was in session 66 days for which per diems were paid. A senator in attendance for each of those days would have earned $7,326 in per diem.

As state employees, legislators are entitled to health insurance. The Department of Central Management Services said lawmakers have the same insurance options and pay the same out-of-pocket costs as other state workers.

Although they had to serve less time on the job to get the retirement benefit, premium-free state health insurance for lawmakers is coming to an end. The General Assembly passed a bill last year to charge retirees premiums for state health insurance, although the premiums have not yet been set.

Pension benefits

The famously generous legislative retirement plan also has been reduced, at least for lawmakers who took their seats after January 2011.

Those in office before that time still can retire as early as age 55 with no reduction in benefits, if they have eight years of service. The maximum pension those lawmakers can earn is 85 percent of their final salary, based both on base salary and stipends. A member who leaves with 10 years on the job and earned a committee stipend would make $28,000 a year from a lawmaker pension, according to the General Assembly Retirement System. The same person who retired after 20 years would make more than $66,000.

Lawmakers, like other retirees, also receive annual cost-of-living adjustments to their retirement benefits.

Under pension reforms passed in 2010, legislators can't retire and receive full benefits until age 67. They can retire with reduced benefits at age 62. In both cases, they need eight years of service to qualify for a pension.

The pension reforms also put the maximum pension benefit at 60 percent of their final average salary. They also cut the annual COLA increases in pension benefits.

At the same time, lawmakers pay more than most other groups for their state pension benefits.

Age-old debate

Illinois lawmakers may not be getting raises, but that doesn't mean public criticism of legislator salaries will subside. Peverill Squire is a professor of political science at the University of Missouri just wrote a book called "The Evolution of American Legislatures: Colonies, Territories and States, 1619-2009."

"I can point you to this debate in the 1600s in the colonial era where voters were unhappy with what lawmakers were being paid and lawmakers were saying in order to take our time away from everything else, we have to be compensated," Squire said. "We've now had four centuries of trying to work through this."

Doug Finke can be reached at (217) 788-1527.

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.